"It's a pity it's Sunday and everything closes at midnight," Dixon said with a wide grin, thinking ahead to his party.

Dixon's win tightened the race in the drivers points standings. Trailing Dario Franchitti, who finished second, by 65 points before the streak began, Dixon is behind by 24 with five races left.

Dixon, sixth in qualifying, took the lead for good on lap 77 of the 85-lap race when Franchitti took a delayed pit stop. Dixon was never threatened to the finish, taking his ninth IndyCar Series win. After wins at Watkins Glen and Nashville the past two weekends, he tied the series mark for consecutive victories set by Kenny Brack (1998) and tied by Dan Wheldon (2005).

"Coming into the weekend, after qualifying, I was like, you know, this might be the end of the streak," Dixon said.

Instead, the Target Chip Ganassi Racing team ironed out a few minor bugs, and their streak continued.

"The team is definitely on a roll. Everybody is full of confidence," Dixon said. "Things just seem to click a little easier. Your decisions come a bit quicker."

A huge crowd greeted the return of IndyCar racing at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, which has a long tradition of hosting CanAm and CART races.

Patrick, shooting to become the first woman to win an IndyCar Series race, never recovered after a bit of bad luck on the first lap that almost wiped her and two other Andretti Green teammates out of the race.

"I have to stop myself and think for a little bit, 'All right, everything happens for a reason,"' she said. "I don't know what it is yet."

Kanaan made contact with Patrick's car in turn 4, forcing her to pull into the grass to avoid any further damage from behind. Kanaan then edged into Andretti's car, causing it to go into a half roll before flipping onto its top and sliding upside down along the edge of the pavement. He was not hurt, although his car certainly was.

"There was nothing I could do," Kanaan said. "Danica appeared to be sliding. I hit the brakes to avoid her and spun. Unfortunately, I took Marco out in the process. I felt so bad for Marco because he had nothing to do with it."

Franchitti, also racing for Andretti Green, blamed the skirmish on the pace car.

"(It was) a ridiculous situation of the pace car blocking the outside lane as Helio started to accelerate," Franchitti said. "I saw all my teammates starting to spin."

Patrick, who had a career best on a road course when she qualified second, dropped all the way to ninth and never made up the lost ground. Still, her fifth-place finish was her best ever on a road course.

Castroneves, Dixon and Kanaan then traded the lead, Kanaan delaying his pit stop to take the lead by almost 10 seconds before finally coming in near lap 60. Franchitti took over briefly but needed to make another pit stop. Dixon, locked in second place and with plenty of fuel and rubber on this tires, just waited for his chance.

"It was like qualifying laps, one after another," Dixon said of his late charge.

Ohio native Sam Hornish Jr., followed by a large, rabid group of fans who piled into buses, cars and trucks to cheer him on, was running fourth when he spun out of the first turn and rolled backward into the tire wall. After he was restarted, he returned to the course, falling all the way to 16th place in the 18-car field. He finished 14th.

"I just lost my concentration momentarily," he said. "Unfortunately, my mistake put us a lap down, and laps are virtually impossible to get back on road courses."

Franchitti now has 474 points to Dixon's 450 heading into the Firestone Indy 400 at Michigan International Speedway on Aug. 5.

"He's been consistently on the podium when we've won. It's been tough to close that gap," Dixon said. "I hope it (the points race) is a true race to the finish, not a silly accident or a mechanical problem that one of us has."